


The Ruby Monkey

by DerAndere



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Gen, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-19
Updated: 2021-02-12
Packaged: 2021-03-17 07:07:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,078
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28845072
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DerAndere/pseuds/DerAndere
Summary: "Something's up with this", he says and finally grabs the statue, finding it much lighter than expected. "I don't know what, exactly, but ... it has this ... aura. I can't explain it. I don't know why General Iroh'd want it around, though, because something about it is definitely not right."
Relationships: Aang/Toph Beifong, Katara/Zuko (Avatar), Sokka/Suki (Avatar)
Comments: 13
Kudos: 50





	1. a dusty room

Sokka stares. 

The monkey stares back, unflinching, unblinking, because it cannot flinch or blink – doesn't need to, either, because its limbs never stiffen, its eyes never get dry. Or maybe, the young warrior contemplates while lifting a brow, it would be more accurate to say that they are always dry. 

Dry and red and-

"Sokka." 

He blinks – because he can, because he has to – and loses and swallows a curse. 

"Will you hurry up and put it away? Damn thing's giving me the creeps", Suki mutters. 

"Something's up with this", he says and finally grabs the statue, finding it much lighter than expected. "I don't know what, exactly, but ... it has this ... aura. I can't explain it. I don't know why General Iroh'd want it around, though, because something about it is definitely not right." 

Somewhere across the room, Toph snorts. 

"Aura? You've been hanging around Ty Lee too much." 

"No, he's right", Aang says. "At least if he's talking about the monkey." 

He pops up behind one of the bigger boxes, right where Sokka suspects Toph is sitting, and pulls himself up onto it, clambering over to Sokka and Suki so quickly, they'd have missed it had they blinked. Atop a box still, he leans forward to better inspect the statue in Sokka's hands, who can count the hair on his friend's chin on one hand, as close as he is now. 

"It's got a weird energy about it. I didn't wanna say anything when we got here, because you guys don't like hearing about my ... spirit mumbo jumbo-" 

At that, he throws a pointed look in Toph's general direction. The girl's pale hand has already risen above the box to flip him off – they've been weirdly in tune with each other this whole get together, but that's something to think about at a later time, Sokka reckons. 

"-and really, I'm not sure what it is that bothers me. But _something_ does." 

"I've never liked that thing, either." 

Zuko's voice is somewhat muffled, words a little hard to make out, but there is no mistaking the disdain in it, and Sokka grins. It isn't often that Zuko admits to disliking something his Uncle values, if pulled faces and forced grins when sampling a new kind of tea don't count. 

"But he had to have it. Never understood why." 

"Because he likes weird stuff. That's hardly new", Toph says. "Just put it away so we can get done here. Where'd all this stuff come from, anyway?" She grunts. "He can't have collected it all in the last three years." 

"He's been collecting stuff all his life. Throughout our travels, too." 

"Didn't somebody blow up your ship at some point? It can't be from then." 

Zuko sighs, shrugging. 

"Well, the monkey survived. Other things might've, too." 

He's appeared beside a tall vase – easily tall enough for Toph to hide behind standing up – and glances at the thing. Aang is still staring at it intently, as well, grey eyes narrowed, lips pressed together. 

"Put it away", Katara pipes up, not annoyed yet, but certainly tired of sitting in this dusty room all day, the same way they all are, and done with them talking endlessly about every third object they pick up – the monkey isn't the first thing that's held them up today. "It's just a statue. And an ugly one at that, really, so the sooner it goes in the box, the better." 

"Admit that it creeps you out, too." 

"It doesn't. It's just an ugly piece of art. I mean, your drawings don't creep me out." 

"Oh, haha, very funny." 

He moves, then, finally, to put the monkey into the open box right beside him, just as Aang reaches out both hands, all eager fingers and curious eyes, and Suki makes a grab for the statue as well, rolling her eyes in exasperation, to do what Sokka's out off for long enough. Their hands collide, of course, and the creepy thing falls before either of them can move a muscle, lands, and breaks just as Aang flicks his wrist to pull it back up. 

"Shit", Sokka groans. 

Suki and Aang stare at the shards. 

"You broke it", Zuko says, incredulous, though there is something like relief in his voice. 

"Not on purpose!", they reply like one, eyes snapping up, gazes fixing on him. 

"Relax", Toph says as Katara hides a snicker behind her hand and a soft mist begins to waver at Sokka's feet as if rising from the broken statue. "I can fix it. My first and worst student–" 

"Oi!"

"–should be able to, as well, but let's not leave it up to him. Wouldn't want Uncle to notice how clumsy the lot of you are, even when handling his–" 

But the last word gets stuck in her throat, and then a surprised shout is yanked from it and all of them when the room tilts – doesn't seem to, _does_ –, and boxes and young people fall, from the ground, past each other, through space that cannot possibly fit into the small, dusty room they were in just seconds ago, and seconds turn into hours turn into years, not that any of them notice, before they all crash into the floor – face first, in two cases. 

Sokka groans, in pain more than confusion, at least for now. 

The shards have disappeared from the floor. 

"What just happened?", Zuko moans, whose nose feels like it has been permanently flattened. "Toph, that wasn't funny." 

"Wasn't me." 

She sounds offended at the very thought that he'd consider she'd done this, like flipping a room just to mess with them isn't exactly what she'd do – if she could. Sokka doesn't think she can. Or would. Move a mountain, maybe, but she can't flip a room without bringing down the house, and she wouldn't destroy the Palace like that. 

Not until Zuko really pisses her off. 

"Where are we?", Aang asks. 

They look up. 

The boxes are gone, the disarray and clutter, replaced by almost empty shelves lining the walls and even thicker layers of dust than they had already gotten used to. The sole window is covered by a heavy curtain, which it wasn't a minute ago, and the room is darker than it should be, but it is still the same room, walls and window, and door in all the right places. 

"The Palace", Suki says matter-of-factly. 

"Are you not seeing what we're seeing?" 

"Yes, I am, but where else should we be? Obviously, this is the Palace and not an Air Temple. Easy enough to find out, anyway." 

She pushes herself up and onto her feet swiftly. 

Sokka attempts to do the same, but freezes when Suki does, just a step away from the door, hand already hovering halfway between herself and the handle. 

"What is it?" 

Toph answers, but that's just as well. 

"Someone's coming." 


	2. an awesome sword

Sesi rolls her eyes. 

Iroh, walking next to her with his head held high and a pout on his face, crosses his arms over his chest and gazes at her from the corner of his eye. His hair is loose today, and his beard is growing in patchily, which apparently isn't something one is allowed to comment on. Not without earning themselves a petulant prince's cold shoulder, at least. 

"I'm waiting", he says and waves his hand. 

She groans. 

"Fine. Sorry. Your beard looks awesome. Very prince-ly. Super handsome." 

He pulls a face. 

"Somehow, I don't think you mean that." 

"What gave me away?", she grins, then shrieks in outrage a second later, when he reaches out and pinches her side, moving too quickly for her to swat his hands away. 

"Monster!" 

He laughs as she slaps his arm, which clearly means she isn't slapping hard enough, but he's hopped out of slapping range before she can put that thought into action. 

She glowers at him. 

It's great to not have to lift her chin anymore to do that – they're the same height exactly now, and by this time next year, he'll be the one staring up at her, no doubt, and the thought of that fills her with enough satisfaction to drop the scowl. 

She's not called him "Little Iroh" a day in their life, and she knows he's thankful for that, because he's only just gotten his father to drop the "Little", and his favourite Aunt probably won't ever do the same, but she might start once she can look down on him. 

His reaction would be priceless, she already knows. 

"I don't even know why I hang out with you", she says. 

"Because everyone else is toddler-aged?", he suggests. 

"They're not! Bumi's just turned fourteen, we've the same age gap as you and I." 

And Bumi's almost taller than both of them, but she won't think about that now. 

"Yeah, but also, he's not gonna show you an awesome sword, now, is he?" 

"It can't be that awesome if it's sitting somewhere in a dark room gathering dust." 

"It's great, I promise." 

He grins, and it's very disarming, that grin, as tiny and dorky as it is. 

Mom says it makes him look like his father. 

Sesi thinks it makes him look very himself. 

She shakes her head. 

"Well, we'll see about that." 

"We're almost there", he says, and starts walking faster, in excitment, maybe, and she makes a small jump to catch up to him, hooks her arm around his.

"How'd you even find that thing?" 

"We were playing Hide and Seek. The problem with doing that is that I always forget to tell them to not leave the wing we're in, so sometimes, I just have to search the entire palace." 

He says it so nonchalantly, like he didn't sent her a letter last year telling her about the search party his father had put together because Ursa had gotten lost in this spirits-forsaken castle and he hadn't found her on his own even after two hours of intense searching. 

(She'd been found, ultimately, curled up in a cupboard in the kitchens, and Sesi wonders why they let Iroh play Hide and Seek with his sisters at all anymore.) 

"And they like hiding in Grandfather's chambers, especially when he's not there, because they think I won't look where nobody usually goes. And that's when I found the sword, it's in his old storage room. Kya was there, too, but that's kinda beside the point, I guess." 

It doesn't take them much more walking to reach the old General's chambers, and while she feels like an intruder there, just a little bit, even if the man gave them permission to come here, Iroh just strolls right in and through, bouncing a little now. 

He's cute when he's excited. 

"Right over here!", he calls, annd yanks open a door. 

And then he freezes. 

And so does she. 

Because there's people in front of them, people who don't belong, people who definitely are intruders, and neither of them have their weapons on them, because why would they, and they're both pretty lousy chi-blockers. Still, they both fall into a fighting stance, and a second later, so does the woman closest to the door, and then her companions. One of them makes a motion as if to grab a sword, before dejectedly lifting his fists. 

"Who are you?", she asks, eyebrows drawn together in an uncannily familiar way. 

"Who are we?", Iroh retorts. "You expect me to believe you don't know our names when you are the ones hiding in my grandfather's chambers?" 

There's anger in his voice, plenty of it, and she realizes with a jolt the only reason six strangers would hide in the General's room. 

"GUA–" 

A swift hand cuts off his shout and then he's suddenly on the floor, spluttering, just as Sesi launches herself at the woman who moves way too quickly, barely surpressing a shout of her own. Before they collide, however, before she's even close enough to grab her collar, a gust of wind blows her half-way through the room. 

She hits the bed, neatly made up, rolls over and lands to her feet, disoriented but ready to attack again, when a man steps forward, the same anger on his face that had dripped from Iroh's word just moments before. It makes him look like her friend, but she doesn't notice that yet, too hung up on the furious red scar over his left eye, his cheek, knocking her breathless. 

Iroh has noticed it, too. 

"... Dad?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I draw better on my Tumblr ... sometimes: der-andere-aang.tumblr.com.


End file.
